3,400 wines from around the world were evaluated by 75 renowned judges at the 2009 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition. What emerged were the best wines, spirits and beers from all around the world. A variety of wines are judged, ranging from innovative new wines to sweet dessert wines in categories like Best Late Harvest to Best Organic.

They even have a sports category, which of course, Tommy Lasorda’s Pinot Grigio took top billing. The competition is also the foundation for the extensive wine education program available at the LA County Fair coming up in September.

Dig Lounge was honored to attend a special preview tasting of the wines in Beverly Hills and got to sample several of the winners. Best of show for Limited Production was the ’05 Burly Cabernet Sauvignon. Red winners for $15 and under were the ’07 Tamari Malbec Reserva from Argentina, and yes, the ’07 Target Wine Cube, Cabernet Syrah blend. There was one winner for the $15-$30 catagory, the ’06 Cantina Redi, Briareo Riserva, Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano. And for $30 and up, the ’06 Armida Syrah and the ’06 David Bruce Pinot Noir took home the honors. The $15 and under white taking home the best of show is the ’08 South Coast Winery Muscat and for $15-$30 the ’08 St Hallett Riesling.

Even Maynard James Keenan from Tool took home the best of show award for the Wine Uncorked Celebrity Music category. The award for best of show in Spirits went to the Glenmorangie Quinta Rubarn Single Malt Scotch. For a full list of winners check out their web site.

Lasorda has always been a winner. His wine is no exception.

The '05 Maison Bouachon, Chateauneuf-Du-Pape, another winner, was an amazing Rhone blend of over a dozen grapes.

Wine boxes are back! Black Box ($18.99) wine was another winner along with the Target boxed wine.

We got to taste the wines and guess the price point of the winners. I got 3 out of 5 right.

The beautiful and hard to find Sam Adams Utopias Beer, was one of the gold winners for beer.

Author:Matt Mitchell

A lover of everything LA has to offer, Matt created Dig Lounge to tell his friends about all the fun things to do in the city. Matt has worked in the dot com world since 1996, including some of the top online entertainment companies and digital marketing firms. He currently works as a Digital Producer.

3 Responses to “Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition”

We are a Temecula winery and were proud to win a Gold for our 2007 Barbera at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition. The wine became so popular that we sold out shorty after the winners were announced. We are so appreciative of the great exposure of the competition. Our 2007 Reserve Barbera is scheduled to be released in 2010.

Photos on flickr

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